Legal & Tax Secrets for Buying Property in Greece

What do international buyers really need to know before purchasing property in Greece?

In Episode 2 of Inside Greek Real Estate, host Peter Giannakis, MRICS — Managing Director of PMD Real Estate Network on the Athens Riviera — sits down with two of the professionals foreign investors rely on most: accountant Costas Chios Chartoularis and lawyer Christoforos Karvelis.

Together they break down the legal, tax and residency realities of buying in Greece — the questions every international buyer asks, and several they don't think to ask until it's too late.

In this episode:
• The biggest legal mistakes foreign buyers make, and the checks that prevent them
• What's actually changed with the €250,000 Golden Visa threshold — and what it means if you already hold one
• How proof of funds, family ownership structures and cross-border transfers really work
• Inheritance, Greek wills, and what happens to a property when a foreign owner passes away
• Short term rentals and working rights for Golden Visa holders
• Greece's non-dom regime, digital nomad incentives and pensioner tax breaks — and how Greece compares to Portugal and Italy
• The taxes to expect at purchase, annually, and on rental income
• The banking and registration steps that quietly delay most foreign buyers

Whether you're investing, relocating, or buying a lifestyle home on the Athens Riviera, this conversation gives you the legal and tax foundation to move with confidence.

⸻

Thinking about buying in Greece? PMD Real Estate Network specialises in the Athens Riviera — Glyfada, Voula, Vouliagmeni and beyond — and works with international buyers every day.

Tel: +30 210 8942 570
Email: info@pmdrealestate.gr
Web: www.pmdrealestate.gr

Subscribe for future episodes of Inside Greek Real Estate.

P. Giannakis, MRICS — Managing Director | PMD Real Estate Network

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:06

Welcome to Inside Greek Real Estate, fueled by PMD Real Estate. I'm Peter Janakis, managing director of PMD Real Estate, which is based in Glyfata, Athens Riviera, Greece. This podcast is basically focused on interviewing various individuals, investors, private investors, people that want to move to Greece via buying real estate, so that everybody can understand the process better. We have real stories, real insights, and that's the goal for people to be better prepared. Today's a very special episode because we're going to interview a tax advisor and a legal advisor. Because we had many questions from our first episode in regards to legal matters, uh taxation matters, and residency matters. So I'm very happy to have Christopher Oscarvellis, who is a legal advisor, and Kostas Hios, who's a tax advisor with us today. Gentlemen, thank you for being here today. Thank you for joining us. Thank you too. Thank you for hosting. Kostas, can you tell us a few things about yourself? About your background.

SPEAKER_01 1:10

So I am the managing director of CK Tax and Accounting. We are allocated in Ilfada, same place as your office. And we mostly work with individuals and foreigners that want to invest in Greece, or maybe relocate in Greece and stay and work in the area.

SPEAKER_02 1:29

Yes, that's very interesting. And from what I understand and that we've collaborated together, you have very good knowledge of the taxation relationship that Greece has with various countries. So you understand on how to help these foreign investors based on what agreement Greece has with various countries, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:48

We work with mainly international tax laws, and we're trying to combine each country's tax laws with ours in order to have the best results for our clients. Excellent.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

Excellent. Thank you. Christophoros, hi. Thank you for joining us today.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Always a pleasure to be with you. Pleasure is ours. And discussing all these uh interesting issues about the Golden Visa and the real estate in Athens in Greece. My law firm is in Kolunaki, Karavelis Bakirgis, the name. And we're a specialist to the Greek real estate and of course to the civil law in Greece. In Athens. Interesting. So it's going to be a pleasure to discuss all these specific issues about your clients that they're interested in asking some things about the real estate in Greece in general these days.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

That's very interesting. And could you both, whoever wants to start first, tell me a little bit your experience with foreign investors in regards to real estate matters?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

As a lawyer working on the Golden Visa since 2014, when it first started in Athens, I have met different kinds of clients from all over the world, especially from Asia, such as China or Dubai, sometimes from the UK and the USA as well, and the rest of European countries, they're wishing of buying something in Greece. So have too many stories in case you want to say. That's great. But let's keep it for later.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

Yes, yes, of course, of course. Costardinos, could you share the spectrum of foreign investors you have, like where they're usually from?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yes, actually, to be honest, my experience started when you started sending me clients. So in Athens Riviera, it seems to be a perfect place for foreigners to buy and invest in properties. So it seems to be an opportunity then in 2009, when I started my office. And we also collaborate a lot, and from your clients and other people, I have a variety of stories to say also about that. And yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 3:51

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Christophoros, what is the biggest mistake an investor can encounter while deciding to invest in Greece? A legal mistake, let's say.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

To be honest. Based on your experience. One of the biggest mistakes I confront as a lawyer is when a client thinks that he can do everything by himself. It happens that they come to my office and ask for my advice as a lawyer after they have already paid a deposit, for example. They have checked the apartment, they liked it, and they paid money up front without having checked anything.

SPEAKER_02 4:26

So they want advised.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

That's yeah, that's a problem. So this is one of the problems because me as a lawyer, I have to persuade them that we have to do this since the beginning. I mean, you cannot pay any deposit unless you have finished all the legal and technical inspection of the property, for sure.

SPEAKER_02 4:46

This is a very important factor. It's very important for somebody that invests in Greece, decides to come here, to be careful with the people that they will choose to collaborate with. They should uh always check, especially they come in contact with real estate agents and legal advisors, as Christopher's here. And sometimes they don't check the background. It's my advice is before you come to Greece, do your homework, check online, check the background of the people that you're gonna work with. And very important for them to make sure that the agent, for example, has an office. Meet them at their office, check their working space. Because if something goes wrong, and if you meet a real estate agent in a coffee shop and you don't basically see their office, what if something goes wrong? Where are you gonna find them at the coffee shop? So this is an important factor that I believe that somebody should take in consideration.

SPEAKER_00 5:37

For someone that he actually decides to come in Greece to invest, definitely he has to have a group of people that he trusts, for sure. And the first one should be the agent that he's going to show him a list of apartments to choose, a legal advisor, and of course the accountant, in order to know all the parameters of this investment in Greece.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Yeah, that's correct.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

Yeah. What is the process when somebody finds a property that they like? What would the most important step be after let's say the they'll negatiate the price, the real estate professional will assist them there, and once they come to an agreement with a seller for the price, what would the next step is uh when the agent or the client by himself address to the lawyer all the legal documents of the property in order to be checked.

SPEAKER_00 6:31

So right after his decision, his final decision of the property he wishes to buy, the lawyer has to have a list of documents in order to be able to do the legal check at the land registry, and of course the technical deeds of the property to see that everything works fine. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:48

And in general, do you believe it's safe for uh somebody to buy property in Greece? Is the process safe?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Greece is as much safe as the rest of European countries. Interesting. Okay. Yeah, and the laws are very strict. I mean, we have to have in mind that in Greece the real estate does not accept any cash anymore. So everything has to be on the table. You cannot hide any money, you cannot do anything illegal, all this belongs to the past.

SPEAKER_02 7:14

That's very good. It has become more safe and more strict. Exactly. Because I think that changed from 2014, it became more strict. Okay. Very interesting. What is the one thing that investors should never do legally? Like what should they avoid? Anything that you can come up with from your experience at US.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

I mean, you cannot come to a foreign country and try to do by yourself. This is the most important problem. So definitely you have to start entrusting some people to work for you in order to have the best result. I understand. Yes. I understand sometimes that these clients they have in mind from their own countries that everything starts and finishes to the land registry because I know there that they can sign the contract in five minutes. Unfortunately in Greece this doesn't work. The process is a little bit. It's a bit longer. Exactly. But safer. Of course safer. That's why it's longer.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Okay. All right. Actually, there is a variety of countries that how they work is that everything is online. Everything. For example, in Romania, everything is online. In Serbia, everything is online. So you can do you can say, I want to buy this apartment by the noon to have a contract. This doesn't for sure work in Greece. We have a variety of documentation needed from accountants, from lawyers, a lot of things to be checked because we are still not in the electronic system. We still work with papers. So this is why this happens a lot.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Okay. There's been a lot of discussion in regards to the Golden Visa. It initially started at 250,000 euros, and there have been some changes the past uh few years. Do you want to briefly tell us about the changes that have happened?

SPEAKER_00 9:09

Yes. For the Golden Visa, the law changed several times in Greece, and maybe this is one of the issues that we should have checked before as a country that we offer this program. So as you said, Golden Visa started with 150, 200. 250.

SPEAKER_02 9:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:26

In Greece in general. This changed the last two years when the government decided to increase it up to 800,000 to the hot areas, let's say, such as Athens or Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, and Big Greek Islands. Rest of Greece remained to 400,000. And of course there is a window, let's say, of 250, but this is only for a specific reason when you have to change the use from commercial to residential.

SPEAKER_02 9:55

Yes, there is a trend now. There are a lot of people that are coming in and requesting these type of properties, the ones that have been transformed from commercial to residential, in which the two hundred and fifty thousand threshold still remains. Is that quite popular based on what you suggest?

SPEAKER_00 10:11

Not that popular. People are afraid that maybe the quality should not be the same as buying a proper apartment.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

In the existing 800,000 euro category.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Although they think that the 800,000 now is overestimated for Greece. We're not saying for parts of Athens like Glifada or Vulliagmen, which of course you cannot find apartments in this price, but for the rest of Greece it's overestimated.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:39

My opinion.

SPEAKER_02 10:41

In the Athens Riviera, though, there are apartments at that category, 800, and it has to be 120 square meters size. That's also a criteria. There is actually there is a demand, but in general, the golden visa never exceeded about 10% of the total sales of the real estate transactions in Greece. So it's not really even though people do like to take advantage of this law, it's quite a small portion of the total transactions.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

And this is why I think I strongly believe that the Golden Visa actually does not have this impact to this increase of the prices of the house in Greece.

SPEAKER_02 11:17

Thank you. I have a lot of questions from existing clients that had purchased back around about 2014 with the 250,000 category. When it's time for them to renew, do they still have the rights of the 250 or do they have to find something in buy something with the 800,000? So whoever bought with 250 and got the golden visa, they're they're safe. They can still be able to do that. It's five years.

SPEAKER_00 11:56

The main investor and his family members, of course.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Okay, and what if somebody misses the renewer? They they delay to come and renew their initial five-year golden visa. What happens and they're in a 250 category? Do they miss that or they can renew it?

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Even for these cases, there is a prediction of the law that he can still renew, even if there is a small penalty, but of course he renews with existing law. I mean, of the previous law of the 250. Thank you. So he doesn't have to worry about anything there. The criteria is that he has to keep the property under his ownership.

SPEAKER_02 12:33

Yeah, he's not allowed to sell it.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah. Very interesting. He has to keep in mind though, in case he wants to sell it and buy something else. But unfortunately, this goes up to with the new law provisions.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

So if somebody wants to change the property, sell it and buy a new one, he has the new law, which is the 800, or one of those properties that have been transformed from commercial to residential, or the 400,000 category in other parts of Greece. The 400 stands if there's a specific amount of the population, correct? Is like it has to be 3,000 people below 3,000 people for it to be in that category.

SPEAKER_00 13:10

That 800,000 is the areas like Athens, Thessaloniki, and all islands that they have population above 3,000 inhabitants. Yes. Rest of Greece is up to 400,000. But the requirement is that to whole of Greece, I mean even with the 800,000 and the 400,000, should be over 120 square meters. Yes. Yes, that is uh yes. So this is the minimum surface of the apartment that it has to have. But the hundred and twenty hundred fifty when it has to change the use.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

That's what I was gonna just ask you. So it doesn't stand for the two fifty information from commercial.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Okay. To bring new properties in the market. This is the meaning of this law. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 13:58

Interesting. Uh here's a question that quite a few people have asked me. When a couple from abroad want to purchase a property in Greece and they buy it together, but the contract will be signed by the one party. For example, let's say the wife is the one that's going to be on the deed. Can the husband send the funds to Greece in regards to this property for the sale?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

So let's make it more practical. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:22

This can happen. And the same can happen when the parents can wire the money on the name of the child.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:31

That it can buy. So let's say that legally, of course, they can do the wire of the money, as long as we have legal documentation to prove the relationship. So as for the couple, we have to have a marriage certificate that we have not only to show to the tax authorities, but we have to describe in the contract as well. So we have a proof why the one is paying on the name of the other. And the same happens to children when it has to do with children, that we need the birth certificate to prove that actually the parents are legally transferring this money on the name of their children. In the contract, we have to describe, as I said, these documents. And me as a legal advisor, I should say that probably before that, they have to make a tax declaration on the system in order to prove that actually this is a donation of money. Of course, we have to keep in mind that this donation is it doesn't have any tax, up to 800,000. So in order to make it legal and fiscally correct, before we sign the contract, we have to make this tax declaration, who is sending the money and on whose benefit. And then of course we have to describe all this in the contract.

SPEAKER_01 15:47

Very interesting. Actually, in that case, uh that you have the wife, but the wealth is in the husband's name, even abroad. For me for sure, you need to do declaration of the gift that you give. And just to be sure, I would have two bank accounts in Greece. One to bring the money on the husband and one to transfer to the wife because you need that document in order to go to do the declaration of the gift. That's that's the only. Or they can have a joint account. Joint account and Which works perfect.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

Yeah. So to keep things simple, what's the best scenario here?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

Nothing to worry about when the husband wires the money on the name of his wife, as long as you can prove this relationship, the merits. It has really legal merits. Everything is okay in this perspective.

SPEAKER_02 16:40

Okay, great. Christophoros, I have some a question in regards to inheritance. This is something that a lot of people ask about. How does inheritance work for people that have for example, a foreign investor has a property here and unfortunately passes away. How does the inheritance process work with and of course Adinlos can tell us about the tax involved in this process?

SPEAKER_00 17:02

Let me make it easy for you. Yes, please. When it comes to a foreign client, my opinion is that he should definitely have a Greek will. Definitely have a Greek will. It's going to be very easy for the hires in the future to go smoothly with the acceptance of the inheritance. If he doesn't leave any will, unfortunately, then it's very, very mixed up with the Greek courts that we have to prove the hairs. Yeah, the heirs. And uh the percentages of each one of these that they have to accept to the inheritance.

SPEAKER_02 17:34

So your advice to any foreign investor?

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Always Greek will.

SPEAKER_02 17:37

So they should do that on a day of signing the contract.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

I would uh by the time they feel that something goes wrong.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

I would I would advise them being proactive when they buy a property on the day of the signing.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Okay, let's say the elder people, I think it's more practical to do this.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

Okay. All right, very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 17:55

It's very practical and very it doesn't cost anything, actually. It's nothing.

SPEAKER_01 18:00

For me, as soon as you know how do you want to distribute your wealth, especially with properties, in Greece we are the only country in the world that has the light and heavy property. So it's called in Greek psili and epicarpia. Psili is the light, epicarpia. You mean light ownership? Light ownership, yes, sorry, sorry, light ownership. Heavy ownership is the epicarpia. Light ownership always goes to the one that is gonna inherit the property. Yes. And heavy is the one that owns, controls, and rents, let's say takes the benefits from the property. The rent is declared by him and everything like this. So if you know how you want to distribute, then you can be very proactive at the early age once let's say that you want to give it to the kids. So once the kids are even they are underage, you can transfer the property the light ownership only, keep the heavy, when somebody passes away, then the heavy ownership goes automatically to the one with the light ownership. And the problem is solved. You don't have to do any acceptance of a will or acceptance of anything because it's automatically goes to that. You need to do document in the notary, but I think it's quite typical. It's not that you need because I saw a lot of people a lot of people.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

You don't need no it comes automatically. Sometimes I have The thing is that this works only for people that are actually living in Greece.

SPEAKER_01 19:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:30

So yes, we're not talking for the foreigners that they just invest and they're staying abroad.

SPEAKER_02 19:35

Yeah, only so the best advice for foreign investors is to make a will to be proactive.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Because it's very tough to try to persuade them to have this, as the accountant said, that they have the heavy and light ownership. They cannot understand. There isn't in their rights there.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Nowhere.

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Nowhere in the world, except Greece. Kostas, is the inheritance tax in Greece considered high? Can you just give us an example of it?

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Depends on the ones that are inheriting the properties. It depends on the relationship that they have with the one that passes away.

SPEAKER_02 20:11

So there's a difference of first degree, uh, first degree, second degree.

SPEAKER_01 20:14

We have three categories. First degree, second degree, and third degree, which is the first degree would be considered children of the first degree is uh children, wife, parents. Parents. Yeah, and second category is grandparents, some kind of uh first degree uncles. Nephews. Yes. And third and the third country is the rest of them, the rest of the people. Friend, second and third degree aunts and uncles. We call them foreigners. Foreigners, yeah, yeah. Okay, third degree.

SPEAKER_02 20:43

Third uh So the they have the most of those. Do you can you tell us a rough estimation of what inheritance tax would apply for each category?

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Yeah, I guess inheritance tax in Greece has a variety, a plethora of scaling, depending on the category, as we said earlier. So in the first category, which is the most common one from relatives as kids and as parents too. First degree relatives. Yeah. We're talking about the biggest scaling it goes up to ten percent. Then on the second one, it goes up to twenty percent. And on the third level, we're talking about forty percent plus.

SPEAKER_02 21:19

So the third category, which is basically any individual that's not related directly. They could have an inheritance tax of forty percent. Can someone holding the golden visa, can they work, be an employee, for example?

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Yes. This is something that the clients cannot understand either, meaning that unfortunately the golden visa does not allow to have access to the Greek market. Of course they have the right to be shareholders in their own companies or to have a company, but they cannot be emp employees in Greece.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

And also they cannot be administrators of companies in Greece.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

And for the last few years, yes, they cannot be administrators. They have a problem. With a Yemi. Company registry. The company registry, yes.

SPEAKER_02 22:04

Business registration number. So just to keep it simple, somebody that gets the Golden Visa in Greece can open up their own business. They can do business in Greece. But they can't work and become an employee of some company. Or as Kostas mentioned, they can't be an administrator of a company.

SPEAKER_00 22:23

Correct. Interesting. Thank you. Trevor Burrus They cannot prove income from work. This is the Trevor Burrus.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

And that's basically because the Golden Visa, the purpose is to bring funds to Greece and not to cause issues with the employment.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

We are talking about investment on properties.

SPEAKER_02 22:41

Kostas, are there any misconceptions that foreign investors have in regards to the taxation system in Greece, the taxes in Greece in general?

SPEAKER_01 22:50

Well, many foreigners believe that the tax system is hostile, which is not. It is combined with the Golden Visa. And now the tax system is friendly, it's normal. We're not talking about taxes even in the income and properties as we have in the rest of Europe. Typically we're talking about from a scale of 15 to 45%. Scaling is scale every 12,000 euros. So this is the case with the income tax. And the property tax, it's one of the lowest in Europe. So the foreigners might be afraid, but uh when we advise them, they know that they're gonna be secure and not pay high taxes in Greece.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

So this is for private individuals in general. And from what I understand, if somebody wants to invest in high amounts of properties, you do you advise them to set up a company to have less tax?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

You have to give personalized advice on this. It's not that you're gonna use one recipe for everything. Depends on the value of the properties, the objective value of the properties. We're talking about the income that you're gonna have. People, a lot of foreigners, buy properties without the will to rent them, without the will to have income. So they keep it for themselves. When we see that the income is getting higher, there we are discussing about having the property in a company. Maybe the property tax is gonna be higher, but the income tax is gonna get lower, so it's gonna be balanced out. The problem with the complication of the taxes is that you need to be proactive on this. You need to know what you want to do, you need to know what you gonna you will to invest, and you need to have a ballpark of the income that you're gonna have from the property. When we have that information, we can surely calculate everything correctly and give the proper advice.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Okay, so you give them advice based on their needs and their business plan. You suggest what type of company they could set up. And what's the average tax for a company? Say somebody sets up a company in Greece and what would the tax be?

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Income tax in Greece for companies, it's flat 22%. That's it. The thing is that the property tax, it might go twice or three times up, depending on the area. The good thing is that the property tax is deductible from the income. So you have expenses based on the property tax, and also that you have the depreciation of the property that you can register on your books, on the company's books, and also that these are deductible too. I see.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

I see. Thank you. The Greek government has applied various tax incentives for foreign investors. Can you outline these so we can have an idea of what they are?

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Actually, the Greek government decided to make attractive Greece as a place to invest and also as a place to live. In the previous years, five years back, the law invites people with attempting taxes on the especially on the income tax, to relocate and to work in Greece. Maybe as a non-dom, maybe as a digital nobad, maybe as a permanent tax citizen. Each case is different, and somebody needs to consult an accountant in order to make the right decision for each case. In some cases, the taxes are up to 50% off. So the privileges are way better for somebody that moves in Greece. And for some non-dom, there are some privileges for their investment and for the income that is the result of the investment.

SPEAKER_02 26:33

Interesting. Interesting. I've had quite some clients that take advantage of these incentives and they find them very attractive. Do you would you agree, uh, Christophoros, on this? Do you have any interest of clients that come in for to take advantage of these? Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Though it should be more practical and the law should be m clear enough, I think it works uh good for the investors. It works quite well.

SPEAKER_02 26:54

That's great, great. Christophoros, can you give us a breakdown, a simple breakdown of what the total expenses are when somebody buys a property in Greece? Like the one-off on the day of the contract that they have to pay.

SPEAKER_00 27:08

Okay, so let's start from the transfer tax, which is the highest amount that he has to pay, which is 3.09% on the contract price. The rest are fees actually. It's the notary fee, it's the lawyer fee, of course, and the land registry that after we've signed the contract, that we have to register the contract. Which is uh it's relevant low, it's zero something, zero five or six on the contract price. And of course the agents, fees, the engineers, in case uh something has to be checked from the engineer. Mostly this is the expenses for the contract.

SPEAKER_02 27:46

Okay, so it total about eight to nine percent.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

It's the up 10% maximum. Okay. It's an average up. It's the average. And we are talking only for the purchase of the property, not for the golden visa application, I mean. Okay, it's for the contract. Okay. One off on the day of the contract, so people should expect this uh have in mind in Greece we used to have over 18% transfer tax.

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Yes, it's been uh reduced. It's been reduced.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

Now it's very low. It's quite low. I think it's lower even than Dubai right now, as far as I know. Which is pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 28:19

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 28:20

Interesting.

SPEAKER_02 28:21

Christophoros, I got some last questions here. Is it safe to buy real estate in Greece?

SPEAKER_00 28:27

Okay. To make it clear, Greece is one of the safest countries to invest, has nothing different or less than rest of European countries, especially Mediterranean ones, like Italy or Spain or Portugal. As we said before, the rates are pretty much better than these countries. I suggest strongly to invest in Greece. What is the most misunderstood rule in regards to the Golden Visa process? Clients believe that obtaining the Golden Visa have the right to work in Greece. This is the most important issue they have to keep in mind. Unfortunately, they cannot have access to the Greek market. Of course, they can stay in Greece, no matter how long they want to stay here, but they cannot be employees.

SPEAKER_02 29:13

What is the biggest red flag in regards to buying in Greece?

SPEAKER_00 29:18

As a lawyer, my red flag is when a client comes to the office and asks my opinion after he paid already deposit, let's say, which is the most important thing. We cannot do anything before the legal and the technical inspection. After you pay money and something goes wrong, unfortunately you lose you this money. So my red flag, please entrust your lawyer, your accountant, the agent, in order to have the best results.

SPEAKER_02 29:49

I totally agree with this. It's very important to do your homework before you come to Greece, look online, check reviews, and when you get to Greece, interview the agents, the lawyers, have a few options ready, make sure they have a physical office. Don't meet them at a coffee shop, meet them at their office. Because as I mentioned before, if something goes wrong, you need to know where to find them. So, Kostas, is Greece tax friendly for foreign investors?

SPEAKER_01 30:17

It is much more tax-friendly than most foreigners believe. What is the biggest mistake an investor can make tax-wise in Greece, in your opinion? As Christopher was mentioned, the biggest mistake that somebody can do is to first buy and structuring later. That's the biggest mistakes that any foreigner can make when he purchases a property in Greece is that one. Is the Greek banking system friendly for foreign investors? It was one of the hardest one in the previous years. Now the banks are complying with European Bank, and it's quite easy to open bank accounts in Greece for foreigners right now.

SPEAKER_02 31:00

Okay. And just so we can conclude here, what out of all the tax incentives that we referred to before, which is the most attractive and most appealing for foreign investors based on what you've seen so far?

SPEAKER_01 31:12

Uh the most attractive is foreigners that want to live in Greece and have the tax residency in Greece, and to work even with companies abroad or companies in Greece as employees, and they have plethora benefits on their income and the taxes that come with it. This is the most beneficiary speaking. I see.

SPEAKER_02 31:34

Thank you. Thank you both for being here today. Thank you, Kostas, thank you, Christophoros. Your your insights are very valuable, and I'm sure that everybody viewing us today will be very pleased and will take the information in consideration. We've come to an end of the second episode of Inside Greek Real Estate. Stay tuned for future episodes in which we'll be interviewing people that have invested in Greece, they've bought properties or they've established companies, and they're going to share their real stories, their real insights so everybody can have a better idea of what to expect while investing in Greece. If you have any questions, feel free to drop a message or an email. Thank you.